Pumpkin Spice Puppy (A Melanie Travis Canine Mystery) by Laurien Berenson #Review / #Giveaway @KensingtonBooks @LaurienBerenson

Pumpkin Spice Puppy (A Melanie Travis Canine Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
30th in Series
Setting – Connecticut
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kensington Cozies (August 20, 2024)
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1496750624
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1496750624
Kindle ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CNYK2J68
Audiobook ASIN B0DC7JSWNJ
Audio CD ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CZ7L4KTC

It’s autumn in Connecticut and there’s a chill in the air, the fall leaves are a riot of color, and pumpkin spice is the flavor of the season. Melanie Travis is perennially busy, of course—but when the owner of a local pet supply shop is found murdered, sleuthing tops her To Do list . . .

Between taking care of her family and assorted Standard Poodles, Melanie is also working as a special needs tutor for Howard Academy, a private school in Greenwich, where her younger son attends kindergarten. This year, the headmaster has come up with an idea for a school fundraiser. All students will participate in a town-wide treasure hunt, with grades competing against each other.

Tokens shaped like pumpkin spice muffins have been hidden in downtown stores. Students will scramble to collect as many as they can in exchange for prizes. At first all goes smoothly, and the uptick in foot traffic to the stores is a win-win. . . . . Until the pet supply shop owner lodges a complaint. When Melanie stops by to smooth things over, she instead finds the man dead, a knife in his back, and his loyal, ever-vigilant Chow Chow locked in the storeroom.

Over the headmaster’s objections, Melanie is once again drawn into an investigation. It doesn’t take her long to gather a list of suspects, from neighbors balking about the number of rescue Chows the man was fostering in his home, to the landlord who’d filed an eviction notice against him, to the bitter ex-wife who is happy he’s gone. With the fundraiser soon drawing to a close and celebrations imminent, Melanie will have to follow every clue—before the biggest prize is staying alive . . .

Dollycas’s Thoughts

It’s pumpkin spice season and Melanie Travis has her hands full. In addition to taking care of her family including their Standard Poodles and Bud, and her work as a special needs tutor at Howard Academy she and the headmaster’s assistant, Harriet Bloom are in charge of the Thanks for Giving fundraiser. With tokens shaped like pumpkin spice muffins hidden in the stores downtown, each grade will compete against each other as the students take part in a treasure hunt to find and collect them. The tokens can then be turned in for prizes.

The event appears to be going well until one shop owner has a complaint. Harriet decides Melanie must meet with the pet shop owner, Mr. Willet in person to address his concerns. When she arrives at the shop she finds Mr. Willet dead, stabbed in the back and his faithful Chow Chow Cider locked in a storeroom causing quite a ruckus.

So now in addition to everything else on her plate, she finds herself in the middle of another murder investigation. Can she carve out the killer or will she be too late?

Isn’t that cover adorable? Chow Chows are so cute and so loyal to their families.

It was great to catch up with Melanie and her family. Melanie and Sam have such a comfortable relationship while raising two awesome sons. Much of their lives revolve around their Standard Poodles or Melanie’s Aunt Peg’s poodles. Sam just seems to take everything in stride including Melanie getting involved in all these murder investigations. I enjoy how the author shows a strong family unit despite all of the craziness in their lives.

Ms. Berenson plotted out an intriguing mystery with several suspects. The victim clearly cared about Chows but not about most of the people in his life. Melanie knew any connection between the academy and a murder could hurt its reputation so it was important to get to the truth as quickly as possible. She followed where each clue led and she asked the hard questions and wasn’t afraid to go back again to ask more. She gets people to tell her things they don’t tell detectives. I had the guilty party on the top of my list almost from the start so I was happy to see Melanie and Detective Young concur. What was unexpected was the way the showdown occurred, however, I was delighted by the way it played out.

While autumn is just starting to drop the temperatures and change the color of the leaves here in Wisconsin it was nice to read the author’s detailed descriptions of the season. I am more of a summer girl, but I enjoy autumn until it gets too darn chilly. As for pumpkin spice that seems to become the go-to flavor earlier and earlier every year.

I can’t believe Pumpkin Spice Puppy is the 30th Melanie Travis Canine Mystery. I continue to look forward to each new installment to see what Melanie, Sam, Davey, Kevin, Aunt Peg, and all their pooches are up to. I know their antics and adventures will keep me entertained from the first page to the last. If you are new to this series, each story can be read totally on its own and these characters are too good to pass by.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. Thank you to Kensington Cozies and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC.

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About This Author

Laurien Berenson is an Agatha and Macavity Nominee, winner of the Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, and four-time winner of the Maxwell Award, presented by the Dog Writers Association of America. She and her husband live on a farm in Kentucky surrounded by dogs and horses. Her latest book Killer Cupid was released on December 22, 2022.

Find out more about her and her books on her webpage here. Find her on Facebook here and on Twitter here.

Also by Laurien Berenson

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